


Perennial

by DeathByStorm



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A unique take on the Hanahaki disease trope, Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Blue Paladin Allura (Voltron), I Will Go Down With This Ship, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, M/M, Not My Shiro, Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Set sometime in season 3, Which is not Super Relevant to this fic but I still had to say it.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 11:50:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12958578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathByStorm/pseuds/DeathByStorm
Summary: Despite Keith's repeated surgeries to remove the flowers, they grew back faster and faster.





	Perennial

**Author's Note:**

> As always, a huge thank you to the awesome Eilera for her beta work. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

The flowers were back. 

Keith sighed, which turned into a cough and he felt the telltale pull in his lungs. When that didn't work, he coughed a little harder and with a painful shift, the roots settled back in his chest again. He took a few more deep breaths just to make sure that his airways were clear. 

“Keith, are you okay?” Pidge asked. 

Keith blinked a little as his blood began to circulate through his body again. Oh right, they were all sparring and he'd been teaching Pidge some moves to use against a larger opponent. He cleared his throat once more. 

“Just feel like something's stuck in my throat,” he said. “It's nothing to worry about.”

Pidge crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. “In my experience, when someone says that there is nothing to worry about, there actually is something to worry about.” 

“I'm fine, Pidge,” he brushed off her concern with practiced ease. “Now let's see that shoulder throw one more time. I want you to eventually be able to do this even when someone is struggling.”

She rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the arm and with a roll of her hips, Keith was flying over her back. He landed hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs again. This, of course, set off another coughing fit and this time he could taste blood at that back of this throat. It took a few gasps before he could draw his breath again. 

Lance what he was doing with Hunk one mat over. “Hey man, are you okay?” 

“Yeah, that looked like a pretty hard fall,” Hunk said.

“I'm fine, guys,” he said. He started coughing again.

“What's going on over there?” Shiro called from where he was sparring with Allura. 

“Keith's not feeling okay,” Lance said.

“Are you alright, Keith?” Shiro asked.

“I said I'm fine. Is nobody listening to me?” Keith said, exasperated as he hauled himself to his feet. “I'll just go have Coran check me out.” 

He left the room before anyone could call out to him. 

-

“Coran, I was wondering if you could help me with another treatment.” Keith said.

“Ah yes, that rare human ailment that you have, correct? It's come back quite a bit faster than it usually does, hmm?” Coran pulled himself from underneath the console that he was repairing. “You know, you should really tell the other paladins about this. It is becoming some cause for concern.”

Keith shook his head. “I just want it to go away again,” he said. “And I really don't want to tell the others. Well, Shiro knows so it's not like it's a total secret but it's not interfering with Voltron so it's not really any of their business.” 

Coran's lips thinned and he sighed. “Well, we did agree that it was up to you,” he saidm “I've said my piece. Come on, let's get you to a healing pod.”

“Hey Coran,” Keith said. “I've been meaning to ask you something.”

“What is it, Keith?”

“Do Galra mate for life?” 

Coran stroked his moustache. “Why yes, I believe that they do if I'm remembering correctly. Do you have your eye on someone, Keith?”

So there was no cure and each treatment was only a delay of the inevitable. Even though he had expected the answer, the truth of it felt like a lead weight in his stomach. Of course this was his life. He didn't think he would ever come to hate a flower so much. Freaking red and yellow tulips. Eternal, hopeless love. That was him. He didn't want that, why couldn't he just rip them out of his chest like a normal person? Oh right, because he was part alien. 

“Keith, you're looking rather pale.” Keith looked up. “If it helps, I don't think that you have enough Galra in you that you would need to worry about that. It isn't typically a trait that breeds true in hybrids.”

“Yeah thanks, Coran. I think I just need that pod now,” Keith said. 

“Of course, my boy.” 

-

There was that in between moment where Keith became aware of where he was. His breath fogged up the glass and he opened his eyes as the hermetically sealed pod opened. He slumped forward only to be caught by warm arms. He took his first flower free breath of air in what seemed like ages. 

“Shiro?” he mumbled. No

“No, it's me,” Lance said. “Are you okay? Coran said that you had some version of space flu or something? You've been in the pod for like a day and a half.”

Keith pushed away from Lance and stepped back to make sure that they had a healthy distance between them. He ignored how the chill from the pod immediately wound around his bones again. 

“Y-yeah. Something like that.” For once, there were no butterflies in his stomach. Keith smiled in relief.

“Whoa, why do you look so happy?” Lance said. “I don't think I've really seen you smile like that. That must have been some illness huh?”

“I feel better now,” Keith turned away. 

Lance walked up and clapped his shoulder. “Well, let's get you something to eat. You're probably starving.”

“Where is Shiro anyway?” Keith asked. 

“I couldn't really sleep and he seemed pretty restless waiting for you so I offered to watch you while he went to blow off some steam in the training room,” Lance said. At Keith's look he added. “I can be pretty convincing when I want to be.” 

“I know you can,” Keith said as they entered the kitchen. 

Lance pushed him down into one of the chairs. “We saved you some leftovers from dinner,” he said. “It's like Earth spaghetti, but the sauce is green and the noodles have never even dreamt of wheat. Want some?” 

“Sure, thanks,” Keith said. He slumped forward. The pod hangover, as Lance had so affectionately dubbed it recently, made his limbs feel like they were dead weights. In this state, the table looked like a great place to rest his head. 

“One noodle jamboree coming up,” Lance rolled up his sleeves and pulled a covered plate out of the fridge. He threw it into the space microwave and Keith heard it ping two seconds later. He set it down in front of Keith with a flourish and went to sit across from him. 

“Okay what's really going on here?” Keith asked. He sat up, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. “You normally wouldn't do this.” 

Lance's ears went a violent shade of red and he looked down at his hands. “What are you talking about? This is something I would totally do as your right hand man.”

“Lance?” 

“Don't you think there is something off with Shiro?” he avoided Keith's gaze.

Keith frowned, thrown off by the sudden change in topic. “What do you mean?” 

“Just, I don't know,” Lance said. “He seems different.” 

Keith sighed and picked up his fork. “He was captured by the Galra again. Of course he's different.”

“That's not what I meant at all,” Lance said. “His voice is different, his hair is different.” 

“He just screwed up when cutting it. It's harder to cut a new hair style than maintain one,” Keith said. 

“You would know,” Lance muttered.

“Haha, very funny, Lance,” Keith said. 

Lance sighed and all the tension went out of his body. An uncomfortable silence fell over them. Lance rested his chin in one hand and drummed his fingers on the table with the other. The sound began to drill it's way into Keith's brain. 

“Do you mind?” 

“I'm breathing, Kogane. Even you can't begrudge me that,” Lance said. 

“No, not that. Your tapping is giving me a headache,” Keith said.

“Sorry.” Lance stopped and curled his fingers. 

“You know you can go to bed. You don't have to wait for me.”

“Nope. I'm going to see you safely to bed,” Lance said. He shot him finger guns.

“I'm fine, Lance,” Keith said. 

“Well, you ever consider that I just want to?” Lance said. A second later he began tapping his fingers again.

“Lance!” 

“Sorry, I just get fidgety sometimes.” 

Keith sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. His chest was still sore and he just wasn’t in the mood for this. “Are you okay?”

“Eh mostly.” Lance said. “Training was okay. You know, just the two of us should train together more often. With my sharpshooting and your stabbing, we make a good team. I think we should try to capitalize on that.” 

Keith's stomach gave a weak flip and he resisted the urge to groan in exasperation. Would this thing with Lance leave him alone already? It's not like Lance, who was always flirting with cute girls would ever be interested in him. How many times would he have to get the flowers removed? It felt like it wasn't even working any more. Here he was, less than an hour after he had been dumped unceremoniously from the healing pod and it was already stirring in his chest again. How much longer would it work? Would there come a day where he fell out of the healing pod with the flowers still intact?

He stared at Lance in order to distract himself from his thoughts. The red paladin's skin was washed out by the lights in the kitchen, but Keith could see the bags sitting under his eyes. How long had those been there? And how did he not notice them before? Lance caught his gaze and smiled tiredly. He made a mental note to keep an eye on his friend.

“So? Are you up for it?” 

“Yeah of course,” Keith said. 

“I don't know, Keith. You were glaring pretty hard there.”

“It's not you. It's just stuff,” Keith waved his hand around in the air.

“Sure. Stuff.” Lance repeated, watching as Keith got up and put his dishes into the dishwasher. 

Now that he had eaten, he could barely keep his eyes open and his limbs were like lead weights. “I'm gonna hit the hay. I'm exhausted. Could you tell Shiro that I'm alright?” Keith asked.

Lance got up and followed him out. He clapped his hand on Keith's shoulder. “Are you sure you're okay?”

Keith sighed. “Don't worry, Lance. It was basically the Galran flu. I'm fine.”

*

“On your left, Keith!” Lance shouted from his perch above the training area. Keith didn't bother glancing up and just spun out of the way and thrust his sword into a drone's chest. He heard a pop as Lance shot the droid behind him in the chest. 

“Training level 5 cleared,” the computer announced. “Begin level 6?” 

Keith was drenched in sweat from the exertion that came from running through 5 levels at once. “Break?” he said.

“Definitely,” Lance said. He hopped down from his perch and dropped into a roll as he hit the floor.

“You know, you could just take the stairs,” Keith said. 

“It's way cooler to just jump and you know it,” Lance said.

Keith shrugged and gave him a smile. Lance struck a pose complete with a wink and finger guns and the scratching in Keith's throat intensified. 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked as Keith began to cough.

Keith waved him off. “Yeah I'm fine. It's just lingering a bit.”

“You were in the pod a week ago. Are you sure you don't want Coran to check it out?”

“Coran already checked me out,” Keith said. “It's just a really stubborn cold.” 

*

It all came to a head when they got stranded together on Diplodia. 

The mission was supposed to be easy. Go down, respond to a distress signal, clear out the Galran outpost. Lather, rinse and repeat. 

Instead what had happened was there had been no Galra and the Diplodians had instead wanted their lions. No, scratch that. They had successfully stolen their lions when they had gone down to make an appearance among the local populace. 

They had managed to escape the Diplodians and take shelter in a muddy cave in the middle of nowhere. Well, not nowhere. It was a forest that the Diplodians found sacred so for the moment they were mostly safe. 

Keith was in a crouch on watch near the mouth of the cave. It had been a couple of hours just staring out into the rain while Lance slept behind him. Keith was just thinking of waking him when the scratch that had been growing in the back of his throat burst into a burn.

He began to cough with a great wet hacking noise. He struggled to draw a breath in, but the flowers were well and truly ingrained this time. He coughed and coughed and coughed hacking up a gruesome mixture of petals and full blossoms and blood. It had never been this bad before. As he finally was able to inhale, he felt the roots constrict deep inside his chest. 

A warm weight settled on his back as Keith struggled to catch his breath. He looked at the ground. The mix of red and yellow tulips looked cheerful in the gloom if one ignored the fact that they were covered in blood. It could be worse, Keith supposed. He could be coughing up something that had thorns. 

“Keith?” Lance said.

Keith froze. Great. Just great. He had woken Lance who was literally the last person he wanted to see them. He reached down and buried them into the mud in an attempt to make them unrecognizable even though he knew it was too late. “It's just that cough again, Lance.” 

“How long has this been going on? Who is it?”

Keith shook his head and took a couple of deep breaths. He felt the flowers settle in a less painful position in his chest. Lance continued to rub his hand up and down his spine.

“Who is it?” Lance repeated. “Why haven't you had them removed yet if you're this far along?”

Keith shook his head again. He wasn't telling Lance. “I've had them removed half a dozen times in the last few years.”

“What?”

“Yeah, apparently Galra mate for life. Who knew?” Keith choked out a laugh. He could feel the tears burning in his eyes and he rubbed at them angrily. He refused to give Lance the satisfaction of seeing him cry. Even if he knew that Lance wouldn't judge him for it.

“So they just keep growing back?” Lance asked. 

“Faster every time,” Keith said. “I don't want to tell him either. There's no way that he would return my feelings.” 

“Wait, they're in space?” Lance said. “Keith, Shiro loves you.” 

Keith shook his head. “It's not Shiro. He's like a brother to me.”

“Who is it then?” Lance asked. “Hunk? He's a pretty good guy.” 

“It's not Hunk.”

“.... Coran?”

“Lance!” 

“What? I've gone through every possible person,” Lance threw his arms up in the air. And then. “Oh.” 

“Yeah oh,” Keith said. “You hated me at the Garrison and even though we've been getting along better lately – Why are you smiling?”

“This is perfect!”

“On what planet is this perfect, Lance?” Keith snapped. 

“Well, all of them, I suppose,” Lance said. He put his hand over Keith's mouth to stop his outraged reply. “I like you too.”

“Mmph?” 

Lance let go of Keith as he doubled over and began to cough again. More petals and blossoms fell on the cave floor. Keith pounded on his chest in an attempt to get them to settle again. Even between that and Lance rubbing his back, it was still some moments before he was able to breathe again.

“Keith,” Lance said. “I like you too.”

“But you've never even given me an indication of it! You hated me until recently,” Keith said.

Lance reddened and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Focus, Keith! I like you too! That means that you don't have to keep dealing with this. Besides, I’ve never hated you. Not really. ” 

They stared at each other intensely for a moment, before Lance leaned in towards him and lost his balance. He tumbled into Keith's lap and their teeth clacked together in what Keith was sure was the most painful kiss of his life. Not that he had much to compare it to, but still. 

“Sorry,” Lance said.

“Is your lip bleeding?” Keith took a deep breath. The constriction in his chest was easing little by little. 

“Well, someone has pointy teeth!” Lance snapped. 

“My canines have always been pretty sharp,” Keith said. 

Lance stared at him.

“What?”

“Well, how do you feel now?” Lance asked. 

“Better I suppose,” Keith said. “I think it takes time for them to clear out.” 

“They're supposed to dissolve back into the bloodstream,” Lance said.

“Knowing my luck, I'll have to get them removed again.” 

“Keith, Lance, can you hear me?” Allura's voice came from the helmet. 

Lance scrambled off of Keith's lap and jammed the helmet on his head. He kept one hand in Keith's though as he answered her. “We hear you loud and clear, Allura!” 

“We've got your lions and we will know your location shortly,” she said. “I'm bringing Blue around to pick you up.” 

Lance whooped. “See you soon, princess!” 

He stood up and pulled Keith to his feet. Keith's face heated up as he looked at Lance. With every breath, his lungs felt a little bit clearer. With every passing moment, Lance only looked more lovely. He put his free hand up on Lance's cheek surprised at his own boldness. Lance leaned into his hand before drawing him into another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to get a handle on the boys' personalities. Thoughts?
> 
> [Tumblr](https://www.deathbystorm.tumblr.com)


End file.
